Lane Life
To cap off this blog and my musings about living in Shanghai for the year, it seems befitting to describe the "living as a local" experience, or as close to it as we got - spending the last few months living in a Shanghai Lane or longtang (弄堂).
Many foreigners find the idea of living in a lane house very intriguing. I was asked by many friends, "So?? What's it like?!?"
Honestly speaking, it's okay. The worst part of it, which I'm sure is the same with any older place in a big city, was the roaches. At least, we didn't have mice, thanks to the resident cat.
When I mentioned the bug problem to my Chinese teacher she pointed out that Chinese people never want to live on the ground floor when there is a garden out front particularly because of the creepy crawlies. A-ha... No wonder there were around 4 ground floor units on our lane being renovated to rent out for crazy prices to the foolish laowai's! (The unit behind the cat - next door to us - was also under renovation.)
Well, we eventually got used to the occasional unannounced visitor and then life on the lane was actually quite a unique and enjoyable experience. Here is a short collection of my observations:
Deliveries: In the absence of an intercom system or even a functional mailbox, delivery guys pulled their scooters right up to the front door and yelled loudly for the recipient or what they were delivering. In my case: "Water delivery, ground floor!!" In Chinese, of course!
Fruit carts: Occasionally, merchants wheeled their goods down the lane, hollering the fruit they are selling and the price. I particularly took advantage of the watermelon guy, since I don't like carrying heavy things around.
Recyclables Guy: This guy was my favorite. I called him the hardest worker on the lane. He was located a few meters from my house entrance where by 8:30 in the morning, he already had a cartful of containers and cardboard that he had collected at who-knows-what-time. Then he spent the whole day there waiting for people to bring more stuff over to him. I regularly brought him my recyclables, which he is supposed to pay me for because he sells it on for a higher price, but I never took those few cents. So he always had a gracious smile for me. By the end of the day, around 6 PM, his "workplace" was all tidied up, he was gone and all the garbage was removed. And he did this at least 6 days a week, sometimes 7. (He was pretty cool about me taking his picture whereas the old ladies pictured here were very amused that someone wanted his picture!)
Daily outdoor card game: I really regret not having a picture of this, but the half dozen or so old Chinese guys sitting at the lane entrance playing cards every night in their undershirts were just too intimidating for me to go up and ask if I could take their photo. Not to mention, that there were usually another 3-5 people standing around watching them play, as if it were a spectator sport. For me, this was always an iconic image of life in China and what a wonder it was to be really living amongst it.
Nosy Chinese Neighbors: I'm almost disappointed that we had no issues with this at all. It seems that the Chinese don't care much to interact with the foreigners. There was once when the nice lady upstairs offered me one of her two ayi's to hang up my laundry outside, but hubby forbade me to do so, due to the Shanghai pollution. So sadly, no funny stories for the blog.
Working Out: A common fixture in the Shanghai lanes is this area where the elderly tend to go for exercise. It was next door to our house, and painted in bright colors so C called it the "playground". Unfortunately, it was infested with mosquitoes, so we only went on rare occasions when doused in mosquito repellant.
And the last local custom: Walking around the streets here, you see people out and about in their pajamas. It was explained to me that this is a display of status in Shanghai showing that you have enough money to own a different set of clothes just for lounging around in. I've seen pajamas paired with heels and pajamas paired with pearls and always been in such awe. Pajamas are undoubtedly the most comfortable clothes, so why NOT wear them all day long?? So, here is the final picture of us showing that we adapted to living in China...
Okay, that's a totally posed picture and we didn't really walk around in our pajamas. However, I just wanted to emphasize how much we loved living in Shanghai and being part of the fabric of this mega metropolis. C's learning to speak Chinese totally exceeded our expectations and we are thrilled with the outcome. Hubby gets all the credit for deciding to move the family to Shanghai for a year...
And, actually, within a month of being back in Switzerland, hubby already said we are going back for a short visit. We miss our friends and the food!!
So that's THE END of this blog!
Thanks for reading along.















